In the Caves of the Wumpus Queen

Part One

Let's look at the room title first. There are six different potential room sizes: tiny, small, fair-sized, large, and vast. Adjacent rooms tend to be similar sizes, so already you have a navigational aid: vast rooms are almost always next to other vast or large rooms. Also, smaller rooms with streams passing through them tend to fill up with water, requiring you to swim to get across them.

Next, there are six different room textures: pocked, polished, jagged, creased, textured, and rough. These are random and (hopefully) help to distinguish rooms that are otherwise similar. If you're playing with room numbers turned off this information is crucial. The final word in the title ("cavern") is also randomly chosen...it would otherwise be a room, cave, or chamber. If there are no exits from the room then it's listed as a "dead end."

Finally we're told it's "watery," which simply means that there's water in it. Natch. Water is a very important part of the game that I'll get into later.

The room description contains some of the same information as the title, but it also tells us that the walls are "orange." There are five different "levels" in the caves, from shallowest to deepest: orange, brown, grey, onyx, and crystalline. Each level contains twenty rooms...rooms 1-20 are in the orange level, rooms 21-40 are in the brown level, etc. Each level is more-or-less self-contained, connecting mostly to rooms within its own level...but there are always some inter-connecting rooms. I have been obsessively making games like this since highschool and I very quickly learned that randomly-generated maps with more than about 20 rooms become almost impossible to map...they fold into themselves in unreasonable ways. The easiest way to stop this from happening (without making cave-generation too complicated for the z-machine, at least) is to break the complex into different levels.

Armed with this knowledge, let's decide that each big white page of drawing paper will represent one level. So we can keep track of the rooms we've visited, draw a little grid at the top that looks like this. It's a quick way of representing all twenty rooms in the level. The ten spaces in the top row are for rooms 1-10, and the second row is for 11-20. The black dot means that room 18 -- the room we're in -- has been explored.

Before we start mapping look at the rest of the description. We're told how much fungus is on the walls. Fungus only grows in moist, warm rooms, and fungus is a natural form of light. You can also eat it. "Grublings" wander through the caves searching for fungus, and when they find it they usually stay in the room and eat it. When you're told that the fungus has been scraped off that usually means a grubling has been nibbling at the walls, but in the first rooms near the exit there's a bug...basically the rooms are forced to be super-moist so fungus will grow (and provide light), but this often generates the false message about the fungus being scraped off...for reasons that aren't that interesting.

Anyway, we now know a bit a bit more about our first room. Draw a large-ish circle (vast room) in the middle of your page (as good a place to start as any), and write the room number in the middle. Then draw another circle around it (because the room is "watery") and add two little unfilled bumps on the edge to represent "two unexplored exits." Part of the challenge of mapping the maze is that you aren't told which DIRECTION the exits lead to, so you don't want to just start drawing exits willy-nilly. Instead, use clues about water and cave size -- and some common sense and luck -- when it comes time to draw your exits. Those two unfilled bumps are there to remind us that we haven't gone through two exits yet.

And that thing in the bottom left-hand corner? It's the universal sign of a skeleton! Not necessary, but when the maze gets complicated these little landmarks will help you stay oriented. I added the skeletons to provide SOME sort of narrative to the game. At one time I thought that certain monsters would be able to resurrect them. But don't worry, that was never implemented.

At this point you should "get all." The Transmat Popper is intended as an emergency exit...if you get stuck in a pit someplace, try to use it to teleport you elsewhere. You are sometimes able to take the thighbone of the skeleton and use it as a weapon (if it hasn't already been randomly placed somewhere), and here you're even allowed to take some of the stone wall (to use as a spear). You can't take the fungus...you can only eat it off the walls.

Fill your canteen with water...since it's fast-moving in this room, it's safe to drink it. If you ever wonder about the quality of the water, take a sniff of it. The canteen is vital...you don't want to have to keep returning to rivers whenever you get thirsty.

As for the barrel...there is one barrel in each level, and each barrel leaks radioactive ooze at random times. When it leaks, drink it...it will raise your maximum strength, but when your maximum strength reaches a certain level you can only raise it by drinking from the barrel on the next level down. If you want, sit around and "wait" until the barrel oozes, then drink the ooze. But keep in mind that every time you wait, the monsters get a free turn.

Time to travel! Type x1 to go through the first exit. Since both exits are identical, it doesn't really matter which one you start with.

Now we're in room 16, another vast room, this time with an arc in it (a random piece of local colour). So draw a line from room 18, draw a "vast" circle at the other end, and label it 16. Don't forget to fill in one of the "bumps" in room 18 -- to remind yourself that there's still an exit to explore there -- and draw an unfilled bump in room 16 to signify the same thing, since there's another exit in it as well. Finally, put a black dot in the "16" section of that grid I told you to draw at the top of your page...now you know you've explored two rooms, and there are another 18 rooms in the level. Good start, and you're not dead yet!

Type x1 to end up in room 14: a dead end. Dead ends are refreshing because they reduce your mapping options. Draw your vast room, label it 14, connect it with room 16, fill in room 16's bump, and put a dot in the "14" section of your grid. A note about mapping dead-ends...try to draw them in places where they won't get in the way of future passages...you'll be happier later.

Type "back" to return to room 16 (a useful shortcut!) then x2 to go to room 18 where you began.

Now it's time to try that other passage: since it's underwater (we're told that the water goes into exit 2), type "swim" to dive right in. Chances are you'll be swept off your feet by the current and get washed right into room 19. This was why I didn't want to take that exit earlier...I had a feeling I'd get washed away, and then I might never have found out what was in rooms 16 and 14.

So anyway, go through the exit, fill the bump in room 18 (so you'll remember that there are no more exits to explore there), put a dot in the "19" section of your grid, and contemplate this new room.

First off, it's only "fair-sized," which is a good sign that the rooms are going to start getting smaller. This would be useful information if we had lots of unexplored exits, some of them to large rooms and some to small rooms...you'd know to draw the smaller ones towards one part of the page, and the larger ones toward another one, and chances are your map would end up being beautifully coherent. The room is foggy (because it's hot and wet) and you've got two new exits, one that's extends the motionless swamp that came from room 18.

As for the map, draw a fair-sized room, draw another circle around it (because it's "watery"), label it "19," and connect it to room 18 using a double-line to represent a river. Put two arrows on the double-line pointing toward room 19, to show that the river is very fast (you probably won't be able to swim back up it at your current health level). Add two unfilled bumps to room 19 (because there are two unexplored rooms), and don't forget to put a dot in the "19" section of your grid. You might even put some "fog dots" near the room; fog can be used as a mapping aid, in the same way that room size can be.

A note about rivers: they flow downstream (surprise!) It's not usually obvious on the higher levels, which are more-or-less even, but each room has a different depth. The fact that the river flows from room 18 to room 19 -- and flows quickly -- is a sign that room 19 is quite a bit lower than 18. And therein lies another mapping aid: lower rooms tend to cluster with other low rooms.

Type "x1" to take the first exit (once again, let's stay away from the water to avoid from being washed away, though the "swampiness" of 19 indicates that the river is pretty calm around there). Room 4 is tiny with stalactites (more local colour), and one unexplored exit. By now you know the mapping drill. The heat is increasing, for some reason. The top level is always a bit weird, temperature-wise. Type x2.

Now we're in room 15 with another skeleton in it and a walking-stick. Also note that the temperature has gone down a bit, implying that there could be cooler rooms through some of the three unexplored exits...but they'll probably all be small, since this room is tiny. You can no longer hear the sounds of water, which is an invaluable mapping clue: none of the three exits go directly to the currently-unexplored exit in room 19 (which had water in it, remember?) so we can draw subsequent rooms more-or-less away from room 19. But beware exit one...it's descending slightly, implying that it could be heading to a lower level (and might even joing up with the river, since rivers also descend).

Pick up the walking stick (a good weapon) then move on. I recommend trying similar rooms before trying different ones, so let's stay away from the descending room. Type x2. Great, it's a dead-end! One less mapping option.

Type "back" to return to 15, then x3. Another dead end! Go back to 15...it's time to try that descending exit. Type x1.

Now you're in room 2. On your map, draw a single arrow on the connection between rooms 15 and 2, to show that you're descending. Type x2 to descend again, this time to room 5. Since the fog is gone and the rooms have all been tiny, I bet we're in a section of the cave totally distinct from the vast, watery rooms around 19. So you don't need to worry about keeping room 5 close to room 19.

Look at my map for a second to see why those "unfilled bumps" are so important. It only takes a glance for me to see that there's one unfilled bump in room 19, and three in room 5...so there are four exits I haven't explored yet on this level. By the way, I'm a little surprised we haven't run into any living creatures yet...but it IS random, after all.

Anyway, we have three more-or-less identical exits from room 5. Try all three, just going in, mapping them, then returning to room 5. Room 8 is a dead end, but rooms 10 and 13 both have additional exits. Since you can hear a waterfall in room 13, however, and its exit is descending, I bet that it eventually hooks up with that unexplored exit in room 19 (though I might be wrong). Also note the loose rocks in these rooms. You can pick them up and throw them at monsters...if you ever meet any!

My technique is to go back to room 10 and try its exit...yay, a dead end, less potential map clutter! Now let's try the exit in room 13. Aha, the rooms are getting larger again, and the exits are descending! The waterfall is "deafening," meaning it's directly through one of the two exits. But notice that both exits are listed as leading to "distant" rooms...that means they're on the next level down (brown). We could just barge down there, but remember what I said about keeping maps simple by clustering rooms into levels? It's best to map as much of each level as you can before you go down to the next one.

Wildlife spotters might be happy to hear the larval sucking sound from down below...those are the fungus-eating "grublings." But again, since this is random you might not hear the sound (or you may have heard it already someplace else, though I doubt it...the grublings don't move that fast when there's lots of fungus to be eaten).

Anyway, go all the way back to room 19. Type "swim" to get into the swamp, and just for fun type "search swamp." If heavy things fall into the water they sink to the bottom, and you can find them by searching around. There's nothing here, but you might run into a fish. At your current strength it's a bad idea to fight anything, so go through exit 3 to room 1. Don't forget to connect rooms 1 and 19 with a double-line (to signify a river), and draw a single arrow pointing to room 1...room 1 must be lower than room 19 for the river to flow into it (though not much lower, since it's swampy and slow-moving).

If you've been putting dots in your room grid like I told you, you should be able to see that there are only four rooms left in the level: 6, 7, 17, and 20. This tells us that we don't need to worry about our map much anymore...four rooms won't be able to confuse us much.

Try exit one (as I said before, it's best to stay out of rivers unless you know where you're going!). There's some junk in room 7 that you don't need to worry about, but the "distant sound" of a waterfall suggests that something is through 7's other exit. Give it a try, and you'll find yourself in room 6, which -- wonder of wonders! -- is the next step in that river we've been following through rooms 18, 19, and 1. On your map, connect room 6 to room 1 (don't forget to fill in room 1's final bump!) and take in the rest of the scenery. The river slowly descends to a "distant" room (in the brown level), and since the sound of a waterfall is "deafening" you can bet the river speeds up there. You might also hear that larval sucking sound.

Let's finish off the orange level. Take exit 4 to room 17, then exit 2 to room 20, the last room on this level. Hey, there's a stagnant pool here! Always "swim" in pools and "search" them, because you might find the Hurkle. Hurkles try to hide in stagnant pools,and you need to kill the Hurkle in order to win the game. But it's a false alarm...he's not here, he's usually in the middle levels.

So this is what our first level looks like:

Notice the branching clusters of tiny rooms, some of which are "foggy" closer to the river. At least one of the descending passages from room 11 probably connects with the river that runs through room 6, which will make an interesting little loop in the map.

Onward to Part Two! >>

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